278 Aboriginal Blalecfs, S,r., of Tasmania, 



But I found tlie fault liad oftentimes been my own, in 

 havino' failed to seize the exact and essential vocal ex- 

 pression, which, on being repeated to the aborigines at any- 

 time afterwards, would infallibly reproduce the precise idea 

 Yv-hich it had been stated to imply in the fk'st instance. 



This circumstance has strongly impressed upon me the con- 

 viction that much of the discordance apparent in the vocabu- 

 laries of the same language or dialect, published by different 

 travellers, is attributable to similar causes. For instance^ 

 a zealous natiu-alist, loiowing nothing wdiatever of the Ign- 

 o-uao-e the words of which he desired hurriedly to secm-e, 

 would point to a tree and repeat the word " tree," the reply 

 to which, in all probability, would be not the equivalent for 

 tree, but the specific name by which that particular sort of 

 tree was known there ; and so with other things. Abstract 

 ideas are unfamiliar to and not easily comprehended by 

 untutored aboriginal minds, and hence numberless mistakes 

 which, from want of verification and correction, become 

 fixed and permanent errors. 



Tlie language of a people, whether it be possessed of a 

 copious or spare vocabulary — whether it consist of a plain 

 collocation of a few simple and arbitrary soimds, or be cha- 

 racterised by elaborate inflexions and a complex arrange- 

 ment of words of analogical import— ought to be accepted, 

 one would say, as the index of the degree of mental cultm-e 

 and social and intellectual progress attained by those who 

 make use of it, and find it sufficient for the expression of 

 their various thoughts, feelings, and desires. A glance at 

 the vocabulary of aboriginal dialects of Tasmania, and at 

 the condition of the aborigines themselves, will perhaps be 

 thought to lend confirmation to the opinion. 



The v/ords or vocal sounds of the unwritten language of 

 rude predatory tribes are liable to more fi-equent and to 

 more violent and arbitrary changes than are incident to a 

 tono-ue embodied in the SAaxibolic forms of letters, the various 



